'Toon Reviews 7: Hey Arnold Season 2 Episode 8

Mudbowl

You know a cartoon is good when it can get you invested in the characters playing a sport even if you’re not into sports.  That’s the case with this cartoon which turns out to be highly entertaining and well-told because of what the characters involved get up to.  Arnold and his friends run into Wolfgang and his gang of 5^th graders again who crash the park they’re using to play football and challenge them to a game in exchange for it.  Rather than focus on the game itself which would limit the cartoon’s appeal just to sports fans, the focus instead goes for the idea of using strength or wits against those who are bigger than you.  I’d like to think that a strong, relatable theme is what people with all interests can get behind.  Anyway, at first the kids believe that strength is what’s needed to beat a group of kids who are considerably bigger and stronger than them, so they’re easily roped into Helga’s training methods that include grueling exercises and eating a bunch of protein shakes every day.  Not only do her methods make everyone miserable, but they don’t make any improvements to their strength.  Things get so bad that they have to resort to using Torvald, a 4^th grader who was held back making this his only other major appearance apart from his starring role in Season 1, to get through the eventual game…only for him to immediately hurt himself.  By the time the 5^th graders give the 4^th graders a major thrashing during the game, building on the unfortunate implications that all 5^th graders are psychotic bullies from “Longest Monday,” it becomes clear that feats of strength are not always the way to deal with stronger enemies.  However, when Arnold takes over as quarterback and leads the team with his smart, strategic plays he’s had for the whole cartoon, they put up a better fight.  This is especially true when it starts raining, and they still come up with a strategy that gets them a satisfying victory as well as give a good reason why this cartoon is called “Mudbowl.”  Given that we have to put up with the one-dimensional behavior from the 5^th graders as well as their aforementioned unfortunate implications for much of the cartoon, the 4^th graders winning makes their weak and annoying personas work here, unlike in “Longest Monday” where they were the victorious ones in the end.  Even if they still have problems, the strength and appeal of the cartoon as a whole lie within the inspiring theme that smarts and wit can be just as good as brute strength when surviving in this world. 9/10

Gerald Moves Out

Getting your own place to live is something anyone, young or old, can want to achieve.  I know want that to happen to me someday.  However, in life you have to learn that even when you get your own space, you have to take caution that things might not be as easy as you think.  This cartoon is a good tool to get this point across.  We open with a long sequence that gets Gerald to long for his own place which honestly presents little good from the life he lives.  His older brother, Jamie O, comes out of nowhere to tackle him when he least expects, his younger sister, Timberley, is always destroying his stuff, his dad never shuts up about the electricity bill, and his mom doesn’t seem to listen to his problems.  That’s got to be a hard life for him to put up with, and with his concerns being ignored, Gerald really has all the reasons he needs to want to move out.  He has an idealistic view of what life on his own will be like with a nice room, a maid and butler serving him, and eating nothing but his favorite foods for all his meals.  That’s a believable childlike view of what one might think getting your own place is like which slowly becomes fabricated as you get older and develop a more realistic mindset.  This slowly connects to Gerald’s conflict when he jumps on an opportunity to rent a room in Arnold’s boarding house.  Since Gerald’s been there before, and it’s where his best friend lives, you’d think he’s found the perfect home.  However, just as Gerald settles into the newly rented room, he starts discovering that hardships of your home can occur even if you live on your own.  His room is dilapidated and can’t keep out noises, the food isn’t as good as he expected, he has to take a number to use the bathroom, and most of all, he has to do his own laundry which he has no skill of which gets him involved in some memorable humorous moments of Mr. Hyunh complaining about cleaning his lint.  Even though Gerald does try to tough all these issues out, he slowly admits that he wants to go home though he’s hesitant to tell his family that.  So, when they come and he’s expecting them to ask him to come home, he feels dejected and bad for what he started when they just come, make small talk, and leave.  Gerald is then left to ponder that even if it’s not what he expected, he’s still living the life that he wanted and is forced to deal with it.  Thankfully, he gets out of it by finally swallowing his pride and admits he wants to go home in front of his family, and they gladly take him back, especially since letting Gerald live on his own was part of their plan to teach him a lesson.  This is a believable, thought-provoking cartoon anyone of any age should see to remind them that for all its strong points and weak points, there really is no place like home. 9/10

The Ranking

1. Harold’s Kitty
2. Monkey Business
3. Eugene’s Pet
4. Save the Tree
5. Gerald Moves Out
6. New Teacher
7. Mudbowl
8. Ms. Perfect
9. Big Caesar
10. Ransom
11. The Big Scoop
12. Best Friends
13. The High Life
14. Hooky
15. Arnold Saves Sid
16. Longest Monday

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where Arnold and Gerald's movie-making gets them involved in a supposed murder plot in "Freeze Frame" and we learn that even the smart ones can break the rules every now and then when "Phoebe Cheats."

If you would like to check out other Hey Arnold reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.